Making Choices

I really don't like making choices. Not when it comes to jewellery. How come? After having spent the last week with an on and off cold I had to realise that our local drama festival is going to happen next week. Since our drama group has entered with two Chekhov plays, it's high time to get my head around my costume.

I pretty quickly had everything apart from the jewellery. I finally decided on lots of lots of long pearls and gilded chains around my neck. Which left me with bare earrings. And then I started producing earrings and couldn't get my head around the colour scheme, the length, the shape - and ended up with about ten pairs!

But I definitely enjoyed myself playing with colours once more. Now I still have the original problem. I have to decide which ones to wear and which ones to simply sell off on etsy or at the craft fair.

I think, I go for these ones. They definitely have the 1900 touch, don't they?

And now I have another choice to make: Making jewellery or going over my lines again? Arrrrrrghhhhh!

Theme Play

It's quite funny how creative ideas come about. There I was, sniffling and coughing, hunting for the elusive spare box of Kleenex, I knew, I had in my craft cupboard (not for being sick, of course but for craft purposes), when I came across a wee bag with remnants of black Venetian lace. I rather unceremoniously dumped them on my working table next to some cabochons. I was still sniffling and feeling rather sorry for myself when I accidentally emptied my box with watch parts on the table. Actually, I wanted to break out into a little rant with strong words when I realised that the combination of things on my table looked actually quite inspiring. So I went off the rant and re-arranged the different materials which were lying around on my table:

Creativity from Chaos

To me the whole arrangement screams Steampunk, Edwardian, Victorian, Gothic Beauty! I suppose, I will spend the rest of the day, curled up  on the couch with a hot water bottle, echinacea and a sketch book...

But of course, I first had to have a look at my blog, and reading the blogs I'm following I came across

Kylie Parry's wonderful blog . A look at her latest ceramic beads gave me another little energy boost.

I think I definitely need some of her wonderful ancient looking beads to marry them with some of the things I find when I go beach combing on Arran.

 Kylie Parry's lovely ancient looking ceramic beads. 

Have a look at her beautiful creatures,toadstools,

leaves etc.

 I think they would go wonderfully with some stuff

you find on Arran's beaches.

Speaking of marrying: Congratulations to Kylie and her husband! - So, I guess, I'm going to look for that quilt and sketchbook and a hot lemon tea!

Fighting With a Mantel Clock

I'm still happily working along on my steampunk collection. Actually, at the moment, I'm fighting hard with a beautiful old mantel clock. It doesn't want to give me its bits and pieces without putting up a fight. Didn't know how hard it can be to get all those screws loose! But I will get there, I'm pretty confident.

While I had my coffee break, a friend send me a link to some steampunk pages. On a french site I found an amazing collection of pictures: clothes, objects, jewellery. Just gorgeous. A real well of inspiration. Have a look for yourself!


Visit French Steampunk

At the moment, the wind is howling across the Sea. It's cold, stormy and very, very wet! Wonder where all the beautiful snow went... To keep myself warm and my heart warm, I'm going to make up a few Valentine's pieces.

Which reminds me: A friend gave me a collage sheet with "anti-Valentine's-sayings" under the heading of Single-Awareness-Day. Some are quite sarcastic, but still really funny. Guess, I shall make one for all those who don't want to put up with pink, red and hearts!

Sorting Out Wardrobes

I spent this morning sorting out my wardrobe. You know all these cardigans, dresses, skirts and t-shirts you keep because you got them from X, Y or Z, you want to wear them when hiking, gardening, painting or cooking (yeah, and then I just splatter one of the new ones instead) or those were just that bit to expensive to be chucked out last year.

So I decided that I'm definitely going to bring everything I haven't worn for a year to our local charity shop. I felt, I deserved a good cup of tea to celebrate my courage. I had it, looking through the latest blogs of the Cloth Paper Scissors magazine (one of the best when you like mixed media in any way). And on their website was this little project which made me getting one of my discarded sweaters back out of the charity bag.

With a few cuts, some zig-zag seams and two buttons they were transforming a rather boring and non-descriptive sweater into a pretty fashionable piece of clothing.

Picture Cloth - Paper - Scissors Magazine by Jen Mason, editor

To read up how to do it, go on their blog:

http://e1.interweave.com/dm?id=7DDA113C8D72BBE280779CC27D202510907515F3BA6F4521

I'm sure this basic idea could be taken further and followed up by many variations. I will spend an hour or so on it next weekend!

Let's Beat the Credit Crunch! - Let's Recycle, Let's Upcycle, Let's Get Creative!

Arran Gem's February Give-Away

Switching on the radio or TV is simply frustrating these days! At least here in Britain. It doesn't take five minutes until you will be reminded of the recession, the government's spending cuts and all the sad and frustrating things which come with it. Not to forget the bleak outlook for little businesses, artists and crafts people! As frustrating as it may be at times, I think we need to preserve ourselves a bit of optimism if we want to get through these times as unscathed as possible!

Considering, that buying crafting materials doesn't get cheaper and that our products shouldn't get over-expensive in these times, I'd like to invite you, my fellow hobby and professional crafters and artists to this month's give-away action:

 Even a broken spoon can still be a jewel.

Produce an item from recycled, upcycled, repurposed or whatever-you-would-like- to-name-them-materials. Anything is welcome: cards, ACEOs, bracelets, bags, whatever! Don't be too serious about it! It doesn't have to be something you want to win an art prize with! It's about having fun and proving that we all can be creative!

Take a picture of your object and send me the jpg (not over 1000 pix) to my e-mail address goddess13@scotnet.co.uk with "Assja's February Give Away"as subject. Please, add whether you consider yourself a professional or a hobby crafter. There's a give-away for each category. 

I will then upload the pictures and on the 1st of March I shall let the family chose the two they think are the best. The Give-away are two sweet necklaces. To have a look at them, go to my shop on etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/Assja and have a look at them. They are listed as "Reserved February Give Away for Arran Gems' Blog Readers".

Let us show the world that we are not going to be so easily beaten by the economic downturn. Let us show that we can help ourselves to materials and that we are doing something for our environment too!

And now, happy crafting!

By the way, yesterday morning I realised that the birds were having a field day in the hedges in front of our house. There was so much singing, chirping, tweeting and jubilating going on! The days are definitely getting longer. And the wee beasties are enjoying. I thought, singing is something upbeat and delectable! So I made a little treasury on etsy with the theme of "song"!

New Chicken in the Yard!

Today I discovered some new chicken in my neighbour's yard! One of them has a head like a particularly stubborn punk. A bit like Mimi, my little Appenzell hen who got featured in a lovely treasury!



Thank you to the Dolphin Lady!

Hunting and Gathering

I enjoyed a trip to the mainland. Quite an experience since the ferry had to sail through dense fog for about an hour. It felt like sitting in a vacuum. Just some white mass outside. All you could see was nothing. Even the machines seemed to make no sound. Only the vessel's foghorn produced its eerie sound with the precision of a metronome.  No way to say how long you had already sailed or how far the coast was, unless you checked your watch.

Glasgow itself seemed much less busy than before Christmas. I made it into a fair amount of second hand shops, always hunting for some interesting pieces of jewellery or ornaments which held the promise of having some parts I could salvage and integrate into my "found object" or "upcycled" jewellery. I didn't find as much as I wanted, but I came home with a few metal flower brooches and some nice chains.

And of course, there was the book shop. That's always my downfall. At least financially. I simply can't resist the lure of books. Among others I found a wonderful book about mixed media jewellery. There are some techniques I'll have to try out within the next few weeks. No doubt, you will see them here.

It's unbelievable but tomorrow I'm going to Glasgow again. Having a look at the Scottish Trade Fair. I'm not sure whether it could be something  to go with my stuff. I'm not yet convinced. But then, I've never been and maybe it's not all about wholesale and large scale production... Have you experience with trade shows? I'd love to hear about! Anyway, I will have a fine day gathering information.

When I came home, I found some of my pieces on etsy in treasuries.



I fell soooo in love with that hairy Highland cow!

And this one, don't you think it's a very glamorous treasury?




Yessss! Jewellery! I love this treasury. There are quite a few pieces I'd like to have!